Monday, 23 July 2012

MCMEXPO at Manchester Central Convention Complex!

I went to the anime MCM expo today, which is in Manchester every year. There's also a London mcm, Midlands mcm, etc.. the company which makes all these anime conventions possible has them all over the UK, in major cities definitely.

First off, before I start this post, I'm very sorry to a few tables with people who were really hopeful since I stood around their items for a while but never bought anything, I really didn't mean to! I'll be bringing more than 100 pounds with me to the convention next year, so I will definitely buy from you all! I saw a table selling Gothic&Lolita Bibles, loads of them, but I had no money left (I'll tell you what I bought at the end of this post). I asked them if they will have a table next year and they said probably, so I was so glad!

Another thing I want to say sorry for is to the lolita which I was being awkward with. She had the loveliest lavender JSK with white polka dots, and a cute blouse underneath it. I asked her which brand her dress was from, and when she said Bodyline, I was genuinely shocked! In fact, so 'shocked', the conversation went like this:

Her: It's Bodyline ^^

Me: Oh wow, really?

H: *nod*

M: Sorry, it's just that, well, I expected the dress to be, erm, erm, you kn...

H: *smiles awkwardly and looks away*

And then I walked away looking like a weirdo. What I was meant to say was that I expected the dress to be of a medium or low quality, but it really did look like an expensive brand dress! Her wig was cute too, and 2 of her Lolita friends had on really cute off-white JSK's with red and pink floral patterns on them. They all looked really pretty! Of course it was too weird of me to ask for a picture since I acted so rude and weird and awkward, so I just left it at that. If I see them next year I'll be sure to ask for a picture and hope they don't remember me as the freak x'D Seeing as I'll be cosplaying they probably won't recognize me x'D

Now, I have no pictures of this, but there was this big area of tables and racks owned by these cute asian guys. I wasn't shocked when I saw the mangas and character+art books of various animes which I love. The plushies definitely caught my eye, I saw one of Miki, from Shugo Chara, but when I discovered it was 15 pounds (again, the currency, not the weight x'D), I died a little inside, as I had only 10 left since I already bought a manga. But this still didn't catch my eye enough. You know what did?

Tons of K-Pop bags (!) hanging from the racks and holders. There was An Cafe too, the japanese rock band. It even had Bou on it, I nearly sqealed! It's a shame he left :'/ There was also SNSD, SHINee, SS501, Big Bang, and these plate thingies with individual photos of the members of Big Bang. I was quite disappointed when I saw there was none of T.O.P, only one, but he's sat with GD on the pic. I WANT TOP ALONE GODDAMNIT! Anyways...

As I went onto the next stand, guess what I saw. 5 FUCKING NENDOROID FIGURINES OF MIKU, RIN, MEIKO, AND 2 others from some other anime. SO YEAH, I SCREAMED! I asked the guy (he was really nice, you'll read why in a minute x'D) how much the Miku one was, and he said 15. I asked him if he could lower it and he said 11, then I told him I only had 10 on me. He lowered his voice and was like 'Don't tell anyone about this!'. I put my index on my lips and kept them shut. And then it hit me.

I got. A nendoroid figurine. Of Miku, one of Japan's most popular idol (technically x'D). For only. 10. Pounds. 10. FUCKING. POUNDS. Am I the only one who thinks that is the greatest deal of all time? Normally online they don't even cost less than 20-25, and I got one for 10 pounds. I was so happy I couldn't believe it. I pinched myself on the arm to check if I was sleeping, and lucky me, I wasn't!

Anyways, enough about that. Here are photos which I took while I was there. Some might have captions underneath them and some might not x'D

Pinkie Pie and Applejack. I freaked out when I saw them, I love AJ!

I only took this picture because of the amount of figurines, but I have to admit, the figurines in the glass cases were painted very well, detailed and such. Really pretty!

I don't know who this guy was cosplaying, but dayum, there was a line of people wanting to take pictures of him x'D

Just took this pic when I walked in ^^ Pretty big, no?

Sailor Moon :'D I was planning to get that Luka poster that you can see the bottom part of, but I figured it was too much hassle x'D

I took this photo to show the size of the building, and I got excited at the 'Tales of Grace F' and 'Panty+Stocking, with Garterbelt' posters hanging from the top. Really pretty :')

This is the manga I got, called 'Gate 7'. I believe it has 3 or 4 volumes, and I'm quite lucky to have gotten the first one by chance, as I wasn't actually looking at which volume I was getting x'D If you are a big fan of collecting mangas, I really suggest this one. None of the female characters in the first volume have the typical moe eyes, which is a nice change, and the details are very nice. In the 'front' of it it has art of Hana, the girl on the cover. The storyline is great, as it's not a group of magical transforming shoujo, but a mixed group of people and characters. It gets a little confusing near the end of chapter 2 to the middle of chapter 3, but if you just re-read it about 2 or 3 times you'll get it ^^ It also has a lot of fact about Kyoto at the 'back' pages of the manga, as the main place the story is set in is Kyoto. So yes, I recommend this to any avid manga readers ^^ It's only got 3 chapters, but it's actually quite thick (thicker than my 'Mistress Fortune' manga anyway x'D), and different from other mangas :')

Woo, plushies :'D

I can see this as a meme saying 'What the fuck is this shit?' because of the way he is sticking his hand out x'D It was pretty cool :') I wanted to find out if one of the troopers was maybe Danny Choo (I suggest you all start reading his blog if you're a fan of Japanese culture, manga, and anime and such), but I didn't want to be awkward x'D

These guy were awesome :') The one on the left really looked like the 'original' (can't remember his name, been years since I watched star wars x'D)

Madoka! I didn't even finish asking her if I could take a picture of her and she was already putting her bags down to pose for me x'D She was really sweet though ^^

Took a picture with Spiderman :') It was actually awkward, since when I asked him if I can take a pic he posed, and then I went up to him to do some camwhoring x'D I think he was just expecting me to take a picture of him posing awesomely, so I'm sorry guy-who-dressed-up-as-Spiderman x'D

Again, I don't know who he was cosplaying, but he was super nice and that pose just made the picture even more awesome :'D

This isn't the stand where I got my Miku from, but it was one about 4 or 5 tables away, and the lady there was really happy to see me taking a pic :') I can already see Meiko about 4 Nendo's behind x'D

This stand had some beautiful art, it was actually about 2 or 3 tables but I only took a picture of one, but.. this doesn't do it much justice. There was some steampunk art, fanart, paintings.. everything!

Really cute bag with japanese cartoon prints on them :') At next years con, I'll be bringing 150+ pounds with me so that I can buy 2 or 3 of these x'D The lady at this table was throwing peace signs at the cameras too but I didn't get a photo in time (though you can see a bit of her hand near the top middle of the photo x'D)

So yeah, the convention was awesome. Some sad times, happy times, exciting times. Angry times too, as I spent about 45 minutes walking around Manchester lost (which made me think twice about going alone, and about saying I know Manchester like the back of my hand x'D), since I had people telling me to go McDonald, then library, and all this shit. And then when I arrived and the central, it hit me: the central was right near the building where the top half of it sticks out and makes me think it's gonna fall. I've been walking around for nearly an hour, yet all I had to do was go to that building and go round a corner. Silly me -.-"